THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume IX, Issue # 124, July 2, 2007
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
OPPOSING VIEW: DON'T BLINK, DON'T BACK DOWN
The U.S.A. Should Maintain Pressure on Iran, but Avoid Engagement
By Dr. Michael Rubin
AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY TOWARD IRAN: WHAT SHOULD THAT POLICY BE? CONTINUOUSLY APPLY
PRESSURE ON THE IRANIAN POLITICAL REGIME TO DEMOCRATIZE & RECOGNIZE HUMAN RIGHTS -- PROMOTE THE
DEVELOPMENT OF INDEPENDENT LABOR UNIONS, INDEPENDENT MEDIA & COMMUNICATIONS, & OTHER INDEPENDENT
CENTERS OF POLITICAL POWER & INFLUENCE IN IRAN -- CREATE SPACE FOR REAL CIVIL SOCIETY TO EMERGE IN IRAN --
REJECT THE NAIVE & DANGEROUS ASSUMPTION THAT, WITH DIPLOMACY, THE U.S.A. & IRAN CAN RESOLVE THEIR
DIFFERENCES
FULL STORY:
It may be comforting to believe that, with diplomacy, Washington and Tehran can resolve their differences. But it is
dangerous and naïve. Democracy in Iran is a charade, and factionalism between hardliners and reformers is a sideshow.
Iranians elect a president, but absolute power resides with the Supreme Leader, who rules for life. Because sovereignty
resides not with the people, but with God, popular will is irrelevant. What the Parliament believes doesn't matter. The
Revolutionary Guards, chosen for their loyalty and discipline, answer to the Supreme Leader. His appointees crush
dissent.
What should Washington do? It should not engage. Diplomacy, absent Iranian sincerity, is dangerous. Between 2000
and 2005, the height of Iran's reformist period, European Union trade with Tehran tripled. Rather than reform, the regime
invested the hard currency into its ballistic missile and covert nuclear program. Today, Iran uses engagement to spin its
centrifuges and run the clock.
The United States wants Tehran to stop its nuclear program. Iranians want democracy, not theocracy. Here, interests
converge. Although military action can delay Tehran's nuclear program, it cannot stop it. The real danger isn't Iran's
bomb, however, but the regime that would wield it.
While Europe embraces the China model of trade and dialogue, the Supreme Leader looks to Tiananmen Square. So
should Washington. Rather than fund outside groups, Washington should invest in a template for change. No one
knew ahead of time the Chinese student who stopped a line of tanks; the important thing was he had the space to
emerge. U.S. policy should create such space. Independent labor would make the Iranian regime more accountable to its
people. Unions could force the regime to invest in schools, not centrifuges. Independent media and communications
could let a real civil society emerge. This takes money. Those denouncing U.S. funding are not the imprisoned student
and labor activists, but reformists loyal to theocracy, and gullible pundits. Tehran's crackdown on dissent predates U.S.
support for civil society. And the Iranian overreaction shows both its vulnerability and the efficacy of U.S. pressure.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
The Middle East & the Problem of Iran
American Foreign Policy -- The Middle East
Islamism & Jihadism -- The Threat of Radical Islam
Page Three
Page Two
Page One
International Politics & World Disorder:
War & Peace in the Real World
Page Two
Page One
Islamist Terrorist Attacks on the U.S.A.
Osama bin Laden & the Islamist Declaration of War
Against the U.S.A. & Western Civilization
Islamist International Terrorism &
U.S. Intelligence Agencies
U.S. National Security Strategy
Dr. Michael Rubin, a Ph.D. in History (Yale University) and a specialist in Middle Eastern politics, Islamic culture and Islamist
ideology, is Editor of the Middle East Quarterly and a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute for Public
Policy Research. Dr Rubin is author of Into the Shadows: Radical Vigilantes in Khatami's Iran (Washington Institute
for Near East Policy, 2001) and is co-author, with Dr. Patrick Clawson, of Eternal Iran: Continuity and Chaos (Palgrave
Macmillan, 2005). Dr. Rubin served as political advisor to the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad (2003-2004); staff
advisor on Iran and Iraq in the Office of the U.S. Secretary of Defense (2002-2004); visiting lecturer in the Departments of
History and International Relations at Hebrew University of Jerusalem (2001-2002); visiting lecturer at the Universities of
Sulaymani, Salahuddin, and Duhok in Iraqi Kurdistan (2000-2001); Soref Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East
Policy (1999-2000); and visiting lecturer in the Department of History at Yale University (1999-2000). He has been a fellow at
the Council on Foreign Relations, the Leonard Davis Institute at Hebrew University, and the Carnegie Council on Ethics and
International Affairs.
The foregoing article by Dr. Rubin was originally published in USA Today, July 2, 2007, and can be found on the
Internet website maintained by the Middle East Forum, a think tank which seeks to
define and promote American interests in the Middle East, defining U.S. interests to include fighting radical Islam, working
for Palestinian Arab acceptance of the State of Israel, improving the management of U.S. efforts to promote constitutional
democracy in the Middle East, reducing America's energy dependence on the Middle East, more robustly asserting U.S.
interests vis-à-vis Saudi Arabia, and countering the Iranian threat.
Republished with Permission of the Middle East Forum
Reprinted from the Middle East Forum News
mefnews@meforum.org (MEF NEWS)
July 2, 2007
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
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Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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